The Search For Personality
by everyday-deeds
Summary: Isabella Swan and Eragon Shadeslayer find themselves trapped between two installments of their stories. The only way for them to escape is discover their personalities and get their stories moving again. Warning: General snark on both series. One-shot.


**This was born of a combination of stress, relief that one major final project is complete, and too much tea at a late hour. That said, I hope you all enjoy it!**

**I have no rights to either the Inheritance Cycle or the Twilight Saga. I admit that I regret this only for the money I'm missing out on.**

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><p>Bella couldn't believe her eyes. Everything was was gone. Her boyfriend, her teacher, even her desk- every trace of her classroom had vanished. She was surrounded by white and seemed to be standing on some solid surface, though she could not distinguish it in any way from what surrounded her. There were no doors, walls, no ceiling she could see, nothing. It was all uniform white.<p>

She looked around nervously. "What happened?" she whispered. "Edward? Jess? Angela?"

There was no response.

"Is anyone here?" she asked, raising her voice.

Again there was silence. She began to rotate slowly in one place, trying to see if there was any change. There was no way to get her bearings, no landmark or change in the endless blank space.

Finally she stopped moving. There had been no echo when she had spoken, so there were probably no walls for her voice to bounce off of. She was definitely not outside; not even the thickest mist could be so thoroughly white and blank.

"Is anyone else here?" she finally called.

"Who is that?" a male voice asked somewhere to her left.

"Keep talking," Bella said loudly. Slowly she began to move to the sound.

"I'm- I don't know- do you know what this place is? I have no idea how I got- oh!"

As he was speaking, a boy suddenly seemed to appear a few feet away. He spun around to face her quickly, a hand flying to the hilt of the sword at his side.

Bella stopped short. He was wearing a sword. His clothes were torn and he had a lopsided stance, almost as though he had some kind of handicap. Something in his wide brown eyes and messy hair made her think of the younger boys in her high school. "Who are you?" she asked at last.

"Eragon… Shadeslayer- I guess."

Bella blinked. "I'm Isabella Swan, but just call me Bella."

There was an awkward pause. Eragon shuffled his feet and Bella cleared her throat. "Do you know where we are?" she asked.

"No. Everything was gone. I was looking at the battlefield- I've only just gotten out of bed, so I was walking pretty slowly, and then I was just here. I don't know how I got here."

"So both our surroundings vanished," Bella said thoughtfully. "Let's see. I'd just survived a vampire attack and Edward was officially going out with me- things were getting back to normal. And you said you'd just finished a battle." A horrified look came over her face as she suddenly understood what had happened. "We're between our stories. We're in whatever happens between two installments of our stories."

"You lost me. What do you mean, our stories?"

"We're both at stages where we'd finished the first part of our stories. And we'll be stuck here until those stories start again. Trust me, I know it sounds weird, but I've read a lot of books, and at the part where we were in our stories, something new would happen and our lives would go on with the story."

Eragon stared at her for a long moment before apparently deciding she was right. "So we were put here because the tellers of our stories just put us in storage before going on?"

"I guess. I think the way we get is to figure out what goes on in our stories. And the way the stories go on is when anything happens. When we do something."

"So- wait, I think I get it!" Eragon exclaimed, looking like a child who'd won a school competition. "We need to figure out what we do next in our stories! Then we can get out of here!"

"That's what I was thinking. What's the matter?" The boy's face had gone from comically elated to crestfallen in less than a second.

Eragon looked up, his large brown eyes like those of a worried dog. "My writer thinks that my situation tells my story. It doesn't matter what I do, because it won't affect the story. Figuring that out won't get me out of here."

Bella chewed her bottom lip. "Okay. That could be a problem." She was silent for a moment. She wanted Edward to be there; it would make her eerie surroundings that much more bearable. But if she wanted to see him, she would have to get out of here.

"Okay," she said at last. "I think you might still be able to make it out. Even if the situation dictates your story, you can still affect it if you know how you'll react. So figure yourself out! What situation were you in when you ended up here, and then what do you think you'll do?"

The boy frowned. It clearly was going to take him a while to think this through. "I was on a really long journey to escape some soldiers- trust me, it's a really long story- and after that, I was in a battle," he said slowly. "I don't remember much of it- I was sort of numb through most of it. I think I blocked a lot of it out. I got injured in it… and I killed a Shade. And it's weird- everyone greets me as Shadeslayer and just-" He shrugged helplessly. "I get why they do it, but I don't really know what to say."

"That's a start. You're not used to being a public figure, but you're one now. It sounds like you're basically- well, a hero. And you don't look like you're used to that at all. So if anything relating to that comes up, you'll probably be really confused and uncomfortable and make a mistake." Eragon grimaced and Bella shrugged. "Sorry," she said helplessly. "I'm being harsh, but I think that's what would happen."

"No, it sounds right… I'm just not looking forward to it when it happens." He looked around with an impatient air. "So… how long till we get out? We sort of figured it out, right?"

"I guess I have to figure my side out too," Bella said after a moment in which the whiteness of the room had remained unbroken. "Okay. I'm a bit luckier than you, I guess- my author says she listens to her characters, so when I decide to do something, she'll start writing. So I've just found out that vampires exist, and I fell in love with one. And was nearly killed by one. So what would I do? I know my mom says I have a face that's pretty easy to read. So I'm not good at hiding my emotions. And when I first got here, the first person I asked for was my boyfriend, Edward. I miss him. A lot. I want him here really badly." She took a deep breath. "And… I guess that's it. I'm clumsy, but unless I fall down a staircase or something, I don't think that'll affect my story too much. But that's almost all I've got."

They both stood still, waiting for the white surroundings to fade and take them back to their lives. Nothing happened.

At last Eragon turned to her. "Did we do something wrong?" he asked warily.

"I don't know," Bella said after a moment. "I feel like this is what we need to do- maybe we didn't think it through enough. Maybe we don't know ourselves well enough to know what we'd do next."

"Maybe." Eragon's face brightened instantly. "We should be able to fix this, then! So what do I know about myself? I'm not good with being in public or with being famous- I don't' know what to say half the time."

"You just want to be somewhere quiet, I think," Bella said with a faint smile. "You seem like the kind of person who just wants to everything to be normal. My guess is you're going to have to go through a lot. Probably stuff you don't like. And you probably won't do it well."

He looked offended. "What do you mean?"

"You're just- you're really the kind of person who just wants to spend time at home. But since your story's situation driven- that won't happen. Since your story sounded anything but quiet, you're going to have to go through a lot. Probably stuff you don't like. And you probably won't do it well."

"I'm not that bad at the stuff I do! I can fight pretty well and I'm not horrible at magic! Why wouldn't I do it well?"

"You just- you're not really used to what you have to face when you go back. So you probably will make mistakes. Especially if you're in situations where you can go from being on the run to being in a battle. It's probably going to be tough. But I think that's what'll happen. At least at first. You'll probably get better as the story goes on. That probably will be a major part of your story."

Eragon nodded slowly. "I guess I'll just have to fix whatever I do as best I can, then. And it's true, I guess. I'm just from a village. And then a dragon hatched for me." He laughed grimly. "And if I have to deal with this weird group… I am probably going to do something wrong. I just hope I can fix whatever it is I do."

Bella swallowed hard. "All right. I've got to figure out what I have to do now. I know I care about Edward. A lot. I know that. For sure." She hesitated for a long time. "I guess that makes me… passionate?"

"You don't sound too sure."

"I- I guess I'm not. All I really know for sure is that I care about Edward. That's literally the only thing I can think of. That's it. That's all that I've ever really been shown."

"That can't be it!" Eragon exclaimed. He took a step towards her as though to cheer her on. "You've been really good ever since we came in here! You've thought everything through and figured it all out."

"Yeah- I did that here." Bella began to pace again before halting and whirling towards the boy. "But I didn't do any of that in my story! I don't get it! Why didn't I think and analyze the way I did here? What's the matter with my story-teller? I can think- now that I remember it, I read a lot! I like reading! Why didn't I do more of that in my story? I'm supposed to be a pretty responsible person, but none of that came through! Why didn't it show? I thought the author knew all that about me!"

"That's it!" Eragon almost shouted. "That's what you do to kick off your story! You think and you analyze something and then it happens and your author figures it out! You've been waiting on your author too much, Bella," he said more quietly. "You said that you'd just been attacked by vampires, right? So why'd that happen? And what other danger are you in? I'm sure if you think and analyze things like you did here, you'll have a much better story than your first one." He grinned a little. "At least it'll be a bit better than mine."

Bella thought back to the Cullen clan and the fact that they were all vampires, of whom she knew very little and who knew where she and her father lived. And who were superhumanly fast and strong, with the ability to read minds, control emotions and see the future. "I don't know about that," she said wryly. "But I'll try and act more the way I did in here. Maybe now that I'm stripped of the way my author was telling me the first time- maybe this is the way I was meant to actually be as a character."

"I'm sure you will do well," Eragon said. Something was beginning to change and soften in the relentless white, and Bella guessed that they should say their goodbyes.

"Thanks," she said, and extended her hand. After a second's hesitation, Eragon took it and she caught a glimpse of a silver scar before their hands clasped. "And don't worry," she added quickly. "Even if you make a mistake, you'll figure it out. You're some kind of warrior who's good enough to get a title. And in here, this is what you are really- enthusiastic, willing to help… you don't think too much all at once. You'll figure it out."

He smiled. "Saphira will help."

"Saphira?"

"The dragon I ride."

Bella stared, but there was no time to ask a question. The white was shimmering, shifting and growing almost unbearably bright. The boy's figure faded and then everything around her fell back into focus. She was back in her desk, Mr. Grey was droning away at the blackboard, her classmates were all around her, and Edward was sitting beside her.

As though he sensed his eyes on her, he turned and gave her a quick smile, and though it did make him handsome, Bella found herself growing curious- and strangely nervous about what lay behind that smile. But something in the nervousness made her exhilarated. For the first time in a long time she felt alive. She was in genuine danger, and she was going to have to understand it soon.

"Bella? What is it?"

She smiled back, and felt her heart beat a little faster. But the increased pulse rate had nothing to do with Edward's presence now. "Not much," she whispered back. "I just want to ask a couple questions later, okay?"

He stared at her a moment before nodding slowly and turning back to the class. From the set of his shoulders he seemed tense at the thought of her questions, and Bella fought to hold back a wild laugh. Her story had begun again and already it seemed much more interesting than the first.

Meanwhile Eragon had found himself standing on the battlefield, surveying the mounds of corpses outside the walls of Farthen Dur. He wondered how he could possibly have blocked out the sheer number of dead, and how horrific the slaughter had been. Perhaps it had been the only way his mind could have survived the battle. He took a slow step forward and pain surged through his back. Taking a deep breath he slowed down and saw for the first time that he was walking on charred bones. Sickened he began to make his way back to the city. To his embarrassment he felt an overwhelming longing to burst into tears. He did not want to be here, he realized. He never had.

_Little one?_

Eragon swallowed and straightened his shoulders. _I'm coming. Just looking at the battle. There are so many people dead._

_I know._ Saphira sounded exhausted, and he guessed she was waiting for him within the city.

_I'm coming_, he told her. _And when I get there… we have to find a way to get this over with. The Varden have no scruples killing as they see fit. And if they go on like this, all we'll have is more deaths. We need to find a way to end this misery once and for all. Without deaths, without so many people getting crushed under us._

_That will be difficult, little one. You are one young human. They will not take you seriously._

He smiled. _And you're one young dragon. We might get something done together._

_Maybe. But do not expect me to smooth over all your mistakes. I can only do so much dealing with people of this kind. They have too many desires and interests._

Eragon swallowed and made his slow way back into the depths of Farthen Dur and the many powerful factions it contained. The mention of mistakes again. No matter how it went, he seemed he was going to have to make mistakes in this story. He hoped with all his heart that whatever they were he could mend them with minimal damage, and survive however this tale unfolded.

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><p><strong>Inspiration for having Bella be so analytical if her personality had survived the bad writing came from a fic called "Luminosity" by Alicorn, which is a rather interesting twist on the Twilight story a la <em>Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality<em> (I like the former, but am not so fond of the latter). **

**Eragon's personality is roughly how one of my younger brothers would react to his situation, as I think this was the personality Paolini was trying to convey at least in the first book. Whether I did a better job is obviously up to you- so let me know what you think! Hit that review button, people! And thanks for reading! **


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